1. Field of Technology
This application relates generally to the field of wireless communications, and in particular to techniques for improving the timeliness in which data packets are delivered to a mobile device over a wireless link in marginal coverage without adding undue amounts of polling across the link.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile communication devices, when operating within fringe coverage areas in wireless packet switched networks, may only be able to send and receive packet traffic during sporadic intervals. This causes conventional notions of packet-switched data transactions to break down. Conventional approaches, such as simply retrying transmissions using a back off algorithm, will result in either an intensive use of radio resources (e.g. excessive polling) or poor reliability, especially for communications in a direction from the network to the mobile device. In marginal coverage, data may not be received at the mobile device in a timely fashion as is expected for real-time applications.